The Other

Author - David Guterson ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Knopf was reviewed on 8-Sep-2008.

Search ISBN:0307263150 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. The Other Reference Book. Classifications : Contemporary Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Literary Literature & Fiction Subjects Books General Guterson, David ( G ) Authors, A-Z Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Hardcover Guterson, David ( . Click the following link to view the cover of The Other.

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1) Hardcover Book The Other by Knopf.
When one reads a novel narrated by a peripheral character about another, more luminous personality, the tendency is to compare it to The Great Gatsby and its narrator Nick Carraway. In the case of Guterson´s new book, The Other, that comparison quickly becomes an unfair one.

Neil Countryman, from a blue collar family, becomes Carraway here, and Countryman´s high school pal, John William Barry, the Gatsby clone, is from a well off, troubled family. At this point, the Gatsby comparison dies on the vine. The novel is at first a coming-of-age novel of the sixties and seventies, as the boys vie in their schools´ 880-yard races, take drugs, drink, play pranks, and date. John William becomes something of a high school and college radical, and one would think he´d be fighting girls off with a stick. But his moody mind is elsewhere.
He and Neil begin to explore the virgin forests of the Northwest, taking great risks in this raw terrain. And more and more, John William begins to withdraw from family, school, friends--all normal society. He even tries to push Neil away, but Countryman is too devoted a friend, even following John William into the deep woods to hack out a cave his moody friend plans to live in.
Obviously, the two eventually grow apart, despite Neil´s constant attention to John William´s new lifestyle. Neil marries and he and wife Jamie begin a family, eventually adopting an affluent bohemian, California-style life.

Then John William dies. The rest of the novel, as Neil and Jamie age, concerns Neil´s efforts at coming to grips with his guilt over leaving John William alone in the woods. To complicate this, J.W. has left his pal a few hundred million dollars in his will.
I won´t reveal what Guterson intends as spellbinding revelations about the Barry family, things that obviously led J.W. to the woods and an eventual death there. But it´s only in the last fifty pages or so that Guterson´s story grows meat on its bones.

As first stated, I wanted to see the story--with Neil within the first person peripheral point of view--orchestrated in the manner of Gatsby, but this is patently unfair. There should be any number of ways of using Neil to "discover" his friend. But the plot Guterson chooses leaves John William seeming like he´s a cheap, Elvis-on-velvet painting of a sixties character, with Neil fumbling about as his friend without any reason to remain close to the moody hermit.
The result is, to my mind, a rather effete story peopled with prissy characters. As always, though, Guterson is at his best when casting his characters in the grander context of the damp, somber nature of the Northwest woods. In the chapters in which they spend time together in the woods, Guterson´s Steinbeck-esque ability with mood is compelling.

His writing has always been uneven, but here, he seems to be going out of his way to deliberately create a literary put-on with The Other, and I don´t know why. In a late passage, Neil, an aspiring writer, reveals agent and editorial comments about his writing as pretentious and insipid, these reminding too much of Guterson´s own writing in some parts of this book. Put-ons are okay in such writing, I suppose, but in this case--if that´s what Guterson´s up to--the effort is too self-conscious to work.¤

2) Hardcover Book The Other by Knopf. This book engaged me on 3 different levels. The most impressive was the well constructed memoir-style of the book. The narrator tells his story somewhat in sequence, but has to move back and forth in time to provide clarity in the telling; and then circle back around at the end to fill in some gaps that he never knew back in the 70s. It´s choppy, but creates the feel of a truly authentic re-telling of a story remembered from a distance of 30 years.

Second, the novel works as symbolic exploration of the paradox of being a part of our materialistic society and knowing that we aren´t living in a way that is sustainable or perhaps even justifiable. Almost everyone in the novel is trapped by a different manifestation of what society expects, or how society operates. This kept me thinking even after finishing the book.

Third is the story which, on surface, is the least engaging aspect. If a reader is looking only for plot, only for characters navigating along to hold the interest of the reader, then this book will disappoint. However, for those with high school friends that crashed and burned, or with their own ambivalence about whether they have sold out to join "hamburger world" -- this book will pull you in and give you reason to pause.¤

3) Hardcover Book The Other by Knopf. This is a really good book, by the author of the really good "Snow Falling on Cedars" and the not so good "Our Lady of the Forest" (well, at least I didn´t enjoy that one). Middle-class Neil Countryman narrates the tale of his friendship with John William Barry, a young man to the manor born who rejects all the trappings of wealth in an extreme way, becoming a recluse up in Washington state´s wilderness. As the book opens, Neil, and English teacher of nearly 30 years, has been bequeathed 400 million dollars following John William´s death. Neil´s narrative fills in all the gaps, from his first meeting with John William and their bonding over many camping trips, through college (at least for Neil) and love and marriage (again, for Neil), through to the final chapters of John William´s fatal choice and the secret Neil carries with him for the sake of his friend. There is much here about friendship and perseverance and loyalty - plenty of rumination about life and why the two friends end up in such different places, physically as well as mentally. It´s a touching read, and the characters are so well done. Melancholy at heart, which is something to which I can always relate.¤

4) Hardcover Book The Other by Knopf. I just finished this book. Overall, the story kept me very interested. There however were sections were long and detailed, but that´s what I enjoy about Guterson. The detail of him sitting by the fire with John almost allows you to be there in an incredible sense. I will read this book again without a doubt and further appreicate Guterson´s meticulous details. This is not as good as "Snow", but that´s difficult to compare against. An equally good read and story. Well worth the hardback price and the 4 hours.¤

5) Hardcover Book The Other by Knopf. Save yourself four hours and just take two Ambien instead. This tale holds promise but turns out to be a plodding bore-fest. The narrator protagonist tells the story of his eccentric buddy John William Barry.

The latter is a trust fund kid who determines to embark into the woods and live (and eventually die) like a hermit.

Long after the death, the protagonist learns that his friend has willed his $400+ million fortune to the narrator.

I loved "East of the Mountains" and thought "Snow Falling on Cedars" was good but thought this plodding tale was a dud. For example, there are multiple points where a single paragraph runs on for a page, a page and a half.

That alone does not earn the novel my critique, but suggests the degree of tedium that lies in store for the intrepid reader.
¤

6) Hardcover Book The Other by Knopf.

From the author of the best-selling Snow Falling on Cedars, a dazzling new novel about youth and idealism, adulthood and its compromises, and two powerfully different visions of what it means to live a good life.

John William Barry has inherited the pedigree—and wealth—of two of Seattle’s elite families; Neil Countryman is blue-collar Irish. Nevertheless, when the two boys meet in 1972 at age sixteen, they’re brought together by what they have in common: a fierce intensity and a love of the outdoors that takes them, together and often, into Washington’s remote backcountry, where they must rely on their wits—and each other—to survive.

Soon after graduating from college, Neil sets out on a path that will lead him toward a life as a devoted schoolteacher and family man. But John William makes a radically different choice, dropping out of college and moving deep into the woods, convinced that it is the only way to live without hypocrisy. When John William enlists Neil to help him disappear completely, Neil finds himself drawn into a web of secrets and often agonizing responsibility, deceit, and tragedy—one that will finally break open with a wholly unexpected, life-altering revelation.
Riveting, deeply humane, The Other is David Guterson’s most brilliant and provocative novel to date.

7) Hardcover Book The Other by Knopf. Amazon Best of the Month, June 2008: When John William Barry and Neil Countryman meet at a high school track meet in the early 1970s, they are two sides of the same coin: John is a trust fund baby and student of a prestigious private school while Neil is solidly working class, but they share an affinity for the outdoors and apprehension over impending changes in their lives. After an unintentionally challenging week lost in the wilds of the North Cascades, John is compelled to an ascetic path: life in a remote river valley in the Olympic Peninsula rainforest, where he chips a shelter from a granite wall and immerses himself in the esoterica of Gnostic dualism --a philosophy that holds that the material world is illusional and destructive. Neil meanwhile chooses a traditional path as a father and school teacher, despite his troubled friend´s exhortations to eschew "hamburger world" and find truth in a simpler, stripped-down existence. Nothing is that simple, of course, and The Other compellingly explores the compromises we make to balance meaning and security in our lives through the choices (and their subsequent consequences) of these two men. --Jon Foro

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 6-Oct-2008, 03072631509780307263155, 200-290-650-500-300-400-560-720-540-8

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